A mobile phone (also known as a cellular phone) is a device that can connect to a network, such as a network for making telephone calls or connecting to data networks, over a radio link while moving around a geographic area. The network to which the mobile phone connects may be a cellular network provided by a mobile phone operator. Modern mobile phones frequently include smartphones, which may include a phone that includes a mobile operating system. Smartphones may include applications, such as an Internet browser program, or other smartphone “apps,” that interact with, through the cellular network, one or more packet data networks, such as the Internet.
A mobile phone, such as a smartphone, may connect to a packet data network by initiating a connection to the packet data network. The connection may be made via a gateway device that provides an interface between the cellular network and the packet data network. When a mobile phone is finished with a connection, it may initiate termination of the connection. Forming and terminating a connection are both operations that can use a non-trivial amount of resources of the cellular network.